Tuna Casserole and Peter Parker

I'm back in Haverhill most of the time, which is great especially when we get to walk. We get to talk with so many people, it's just awesome. A lot of the people here believe in a lot of things. We met a man who believes that the African-Americans are the real Jews from Christ's time and that they fled into Egypt from the invading Romans, so the Egyptians sold them into slavery to the Europeans. That's right. It's Haverhill, Baby!

Now I want to talk about food. Food for missionaries is an interesting subject, because we really love eating it, but we put as little effort into making it as possible. Well, not as little as possible, but we could definitely be trying harder. I think I'm doing pretty well on recipes. We make a lot of pasta, and sometimes we mix in tuna and cream of mushroom soup. It makes an easy tuna casserole, but we never have time to bake it. 

We found a donut-hole machine at the church, like a kids electric one that someone left there months ago, and made pancake balls in it last night. I might test some crazy stuff in it, like McGriddle Bites or mini corndogs. It's a cool little machine. I want to try out crepes (not in the donut-hole machine), but we don't have much to put in them right now. I've started eating Cream of Wheat, but cooked with milk instead of water. I always cooked it with water and made myself eat it, but now I love it with milk. Never realized how good it could be. And I have to figure out cool dishes with green beans and corn, because we have tons of cans of each.

I actually saw a small miracle with food this week. We were out of peanut butter, which may seem small but is a minor disaster for a missionary. We drove to Groveland, which is just across the Merrimac River from Haverhill, and decided to stop by a member of the church who hasn't been active recently. We talked with her and shared a scripture and when we were about to leave, she asked "Hey, do you want some peanut butter?" Yes, we wanted some peanut butter. I am so grateful we got to see her and strengthen her faith, as well as get some peanut butter. I see little miracles every day, it's so cool.

A week or two ago, I found an electric slot car set that someone was giving away. After setting it up, realizing the tracks needed to be cleaned, taking it apart to take back to the Haverhill apartment, setting it up again, and realizing it was bedtime, I decided that it was a waste of the Lord's time. It distracted me from getting to bed on time, and like Peter Parker and marriage, I realized I wasn't ready for it. So if you drive around Bradford and see this, good luck.

From Haverhill with Love,

Elder Jon Harrison Richins